What day is it today? Where did you leave the keys? What’s your password?
It’s not early Alzheimer’s. It’s Digital Amnesia, and it’s happening to all of us.
What is Digital Amnesia (and why don’t you even remember your PIN anymore)?
Digital amnesia is that modern phenomenon where your brain has decided to delegate memory to… your phone.
Why memorize when you can just Google it? Why remember an address if Google Maps guides you even to the nearest bathroom?
Your brain, that organ that used to store birthdays, recipes, numbers, and subway schedules, now only remembers one thing: where the charger is 😉
The brain has said: “Outsourced.”
We don’t memorize anymore, we delegate. And it makes sense:
You have 74 passwords.
Four calendars.
Six active chats.
And an app reminding you to drink water because even that you forget.
Result? Your natural memory is on furlough.
“Is my mom’s birthday the 12th or the 21st? No worries, Facebook will tell me.”
How to recognize if you suffer from Digital Amnesia
You don’t know your phone number. Nor your partner’s. Nor emergency numbers.
You need to open the banking app to know how much money you have. And even then, you get surprised.
You forget why you entered a room. It’s not an interdimensional portal, just your brain waiting for Google to remind it.
Your Google history looks like an existential conversation.
“How to know if I boiled the egg?”
“Pain on the right side after laughing hard”
Are we becoming stupid?
No. But yes, dependent.
Technology doesn’t make us less intelligent, but it is changing how we use our intelligence.
Before, we remembered the birthdays of half the family.
Now:
Alexa, when was my grandma born?
Siri, when do I get paid?
Google, how do you spell “definitely”?
The good, the bad, and the slightly ridiculous
The good:
You can save everything without limits.
You have immediate access to almost any data.
You save mental space (which you then spend watching someone organize their fridge by colors for 45 minutes).
The bad:
Your brain no longer trains its “memory muscles.”
You lose your phone and suddenly become an emotional caveman, like someone I know @Tebasjavier, who can’t even see beyond the phone.
You trust the cloud so much you forget to use your head.
The ridiculous:
You search something on Google and forget what you were looking for when you see the first Karol-G news.
You ask ChatGPT “how to recover memory” while eating in front of five open screens.
Is there a solution? (yes, and it’s not changing your phone)
Train your memory like it’s the gym.
Learn numbers, addresses, birthdays.
Tell your brain it’s not retired yet.
Do “Google-free days.”
Though it sounds extreme, try answering everyday questions without digital help.
(Yes, even if you think incognito mode makes you invisible, like a superpower.)
Digital yes, but with judgment.
Use apps as help, not as an oracle.
Technology is to complement your mind, not replace it.
Let’s remember how remembering used to work
Digital Amnesia is not an apocalypse.
But it is a gentle alarm, like that low battery beep you ignore… until everything shuts down.
So yes,
Use the cloud.
Save your passwords.
Delegate to calendars, assistants, and reminders.
But don’t retire your memory.
Train it. Frustrate it a little. Make it sweat.
Because if you don’t give it reasons to stay, one day you might even forget what you wanted to remember.
Your brain has backup.
It’s not perfect, it’s not encrypted, and sometimes it mixes birthdays with lasagna recipes.
But it’s yours.
And it still works, well… some are closer to “factory reset.” But let’s not lose hope.
FAQs
It's real. Studies show that delegating everything to technology (passwords, dates, even grocery lists) weakens working memory.
It depends. If you forget your keys but remember what you were doing in 2011 when a song comes on, your brain is probably fine—it's just in chaos mode. But if you struggle to remember basic things all the time, it might not be just digital amnesia. Consult a specialist (human, not Alexa).
It's not about deleting apps or going to a cabin. It's about balance. Use reminders, yes, but also exercise your memory with small things, like remembering a phone number or making a mental grocery list. Your brain is like a muscle; if it only scrolls, it atrophies.
